Frederick Douglass, A Narrative of the Life
Questions for Class Discussion
(Also: A model for the group questions you'll write!)
- What are some of the "theories" (accepted
beliefs) about slavery (as a system, or about the nature or experience of
participants) that FD's text brings to our attention?
- Are there moments where FD seems to question,
or confront, or expose facts/beliefs about which he is skeptical? How does
he do this?
- What makes it easy or hard for us to recognize
these issues, as we read FD's Narrative over 150 years after its
publication?
- What can you observe about the theory at work
in FD's thinking about race, slavery, and the means to end it?
- Clearly, FD's assumptions (his paradigm or
frame of reference) were different from those of the slave-holders of his
day. Do you get a sense that they are different from those of other
abolitionists of his time? Are there ways in which they are different from
our own?